I don’t love football, but I do love food, drinks and friends, so while my focus this Sunday will be less on the big game and more on refilling my glass and making sure that everyone has enough to eat, it’s still going to be a blast. Still figuring out what to serve? Check out my favorite eat-in-front-of-the-TV snacks:

Ginger-Shrimp Potstickers

Scallion Pancakes

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with tortilla chips

Sweet Potato Oven Fries with Sriracha Aioli

Baked Samosas with Peach Chutney

Black Bean and Chicken Purses

Garlicky White Bean Dip with baguette slices or cut-up veggies

Turkey-Cheddar Sliders

Fig-Prosciutto Pizza

Asparagus Taquitos

Guacamole with tortilla chips

Mango Flautas with Lime Crema

Vegetable Quesadillas with Dipping Trio

Chorizo Taco Truck Tacos

College Nachos

Bacon-Parmesan-Stuffed Mushrooms

Sriracha Deviled Eggs

Homemade Pizza Rolls

Sriracha-Brown Sugar Hot Wings

Just add beer, friends and a TV.

These lip-smackingly delicious wings are smothered in a sweet-hot sauce, not for timid tongues. To cool them down, I recommend whirling together 1/3 cup mayo, 1/3 cup sour cream or yogurt and some finely chopped garlic and cilantro.

Note: This recipe makes about 16 addictively-good party wings, so if you are expecting a big crowd (or have friends with big appetites), you might consider doubling or tripling the recipe.

So, I could write an enthusiastic post on how excited I am for the Super Bowl but the fact is that I am a supremely awful liar. You would see right through it and then you would be too annoyed with me to read on far enough to get to the crazy-good homemade pizza rolls recipe that follows.

So instead, I’ll be honest: I don’t care about football. I am a gatherer, not a hunter—I get confused and then bored trying to keep track of objects flying through the air and men jumping on top of each other, all within increments of time that don’t match up to what is actually on the clock. I am forever accidentally referring to my brother’s fantasy football team as his “imaginary football team,” and have even been known to ask “what inning is this?” This year I am rooting for the Green Bay Packers exclusively because my friend Chris is from Green Bay and I know it will make him happy if they win—a big step up from previous years when I rooted for teams based on the uniform color combination I preferred.

But you will not find me pouting this Sunday, as I do like beer, Super Bowl commercials and the snacks associated with the big game, particularly pizza rolls. As a kid, I admit to enjoying the Totino’s frozen variety, and eventually switching to the organic Amy’s Kitchen kind, but now I try to avoid frozen convenience food at all costs, so I figured I’d try making them myself.

Turns out it’s ridiculously easy, so read on.

Go Packers! Or Steelers?

Or whatever. Pass the pizza rolls.

Note: I made my own dough but if you’re trying to save time, make these using refrigerated pie dough (the kind you roll out, not the kind that comes pre-pressed into pie tins). Also, feel free to add chopped pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, cooked Italian sausage or whatever your little heart desires.

• ingredients
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus more for the pan Pantry
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling Pantry
• salt Pantry
• 1/2 cup sour cream or plain whole milk yogurt 1.50 for 8 oz.
• salt Pantry
• 1 15-oz. can crushed tomatoes $1.50
• 1 tsp dried basil $1.50 for 1 oz.
• 2/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese $3.50 for 12 oz.
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced Pantry
• freshly ground pepper Pantry
• 1 egg $1.50 for 12

Total Cost of Ingredients $11

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet and set aside.

In a mixing bowl or food processor, combine oil, flour and a generous pinch of salt. Mix together until mixture resembles small peas. Add sour cream and stir to combine a sticky dough. If dough is a little dry, add 1-2 tbsp ice water. Cover dough and refrigerate until ready to use.

In another mixing bowl, combine crushed tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well.

Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/8” thick. Use a floured 4” cookie cutter, cup or bowl (I used a plastic food container, which worked well) to cut the dough into circles. Re-roll scraps and continue cutting until all dough has been used up. You should have 14-16 circles.

Place about 1 1/2 tbsps of the tomato filling on one half of the dough circle. Fold the other half over and press gently (but firmly) along the edges of the circle to seal it, forming a half-moon. Use the back of a fork to create a scalloped edge along the seal. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough circles.

Beat the egg with 1/8 cup water to make an egg wash. Brush the tops of the pizza rolls with the egg wash and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot.

Makes 14-16 pizza rolls.

While I love risotto, particularly when I’m looking to serve a crowd, I dare say I may have found an even better way to serve Italian Arborio rice. This luscious, indulgent savory pudding makes a great vegetarian entree or fancy side dish and is made with just a few very simple ingredients. Rich and creamy, it can stand up to the best mac and cheese in the comfort food department. Whip it together and pop it in the oven until your company arrives and use the time to toss together a green salad, open a bottle of wine and download the forthcoming iPad app I worked on (more on that soon!).

• ingredients
• extra virgin olive oil Pantry
• 4 shallots, peeled and sliced thinly $1
• 1 cup Arborio rice $2.50 for 16 oz.
• 1 15-oz. can low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth $1.50
• 1 egg yolk $1.50 for 12 eggs
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp half-and-half $1.50 for a pint
• 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish $1 for a bunch
• 4 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled $3.50 for 6 oz.
• salt and pepper to taste Pantry

Total Cost of Ingredients $12.50

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil 4 oven-proof ramekins or 1 8×8 square casserole pan (an 8” or 9” pie/cake pan will also work).

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the sliced shallots and allow to caramelize, stirring very occasionally (this will take 16-18 minutes).

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the rice and allow to toast lightly (2-3 minutes, stir occasionally).

Add the broth and stir well. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes, or until mostly absorbed.

While broth absorbs, Combine 1 cup half-and-half and the egg yolk in a small pot over medium heat. Whisk constantly until mixture thickens and a custard forms (it should coat the back of a spoon easily). Remove from heat.

Pour the custard into the cooked rice and stir and add the caramelized shallots, parsley and goat cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Stir gently to combine.

Transfer to the prepared ramekins/casserole dish. Top with the half-and-half and stir in lightly (you should still be able to see a bit of the half-and-half).

Bake for 26-32 minutes, or until pudding is firm and top is golden-brown. Garnish with parsley if desired.

Serve hot.

Serves 2 (as a main course) or 4 (as a side-dish).

I have considered, more than once, that perhaps I write about food because what I actually want to write about is love, but am afraid to do so. Food is a safe topic for me—I’m good with food, I understand it. I can write about it from a place of authority because I’m sure of myself in a kitchen. Love, however is a different story.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that this post isn’t really about mayonnaise.

I made mayonnaise, today, yes. I’d been wanting to try it for awhile—I’d heard that homemade mayonnaise is a different animal from the store-bought stuff—and a great, inexpensive way to take recipes calling for mayo to new levels.

So I gathered the ingredients for a batch of fresh, rich, egg-yolky, olive-oily, lightly-lemony mayonnaise and set about whisking until my arm felt like it was going to fall off. Despite my efforts, however I found myself with a bowl of oily, “broken” aioli, or what WikiHow called, in the post I consulted for guidance, “a useless pile of oil and egg yolk.” The problem, I surmised, after reading the article, was that I had added the oil too quickly. Instead of very slowly streaming it into the bowl of egg yolks in a thin and steady stream, I had glug-glugged it in choppy increments, beaten the bejesus out of the mixture, then added more oil and repeated the process. I had been overzealous and careless and there was, it seemed, no saving my would-be mayonnaise. Kind of, I thought to myself uncharitably, my most recent romantic fiasco heavy on my mind, like the way I fall in love.

So there I was, holding a bowl containing a cup-and-a-half of good olive oil, 3 egg yolks and the juice of a fresh lemon—all wasted—with a sore arm, dwelling on both my culinary and romantic failures. The cheesy Toni Braxton song, Unbreak My Heart ran through my head as I simultaneously wished for ways to repair both my mayonnaise and love life.

I figured there was nothing I could do (at least at that moment) about my oft-breaking heart, but I was fiercely determined to unbreak my mayonnaise. So I went back to the aforementioned article and reviewed the “tips” section. To recover a broken mayonnaise, it said, place a teaspoon of water into another bowl and then add the broken mayonnaise drop by drop into the water while whisking, just like you added the oil to the egg yolks before. When you have incorporated all of the broken mayonnaise into the water, slowly add the remaining oil (if any) while whisking, just like before.

I had nothing to lose, so I did as the article said, exercising caution as I poured the oil-and-egg mixture from a spouted measuring cup, drop by drop into the tiny pool of water. I whisked and whisked and, lo and behold, a thick, creamy sauce eventually began to form. It seemed like an eternity before I poured the last few drops out, my wrist aching from holding the cup at such an awkward angle, but by the time I finished, the result was a velvet-smooth, pale yellow sauce—totally different from (and far tastier than) store-bought mayonnaise.

I scraped most of it into a jar to be stored in the refrigerator, and stirred a few tablespoons together with some minced garlic, fresh herbs and paprika to make a perky aioli to serve with sweet potato oven fries.

And so, I learned, some things can, in fact, be unbroken provided you exercise a little creativity, restraint and perhaps most importantly, the willingness to try again.